Plunderbund » Campaign Contribution

[Correction:] Building a Better Ohio raised only a little over a third of what it planned on raising

ModernEsquire — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:54:13 +0000

Back in the end of July, the Columbus Dispatch did an insightful story on how Building a Better Ohio was planning on getting voters to approve Issue 2 at the polls:

The group formed to defend Senate Bill 5 believes the same Quinnipiac University poll released July 20 that showed voters favor repeal of Ohio’s new collective-bargaining law by 24 points also provides a road map of “pressure points” that can change minds before the Nov. 8 referendum.

And with three months until the vote and a $20 million budget, the coalition of Gov. John Kasich confidants and [...]

Marathon Oil received millions of dollars in tax breaks in Kasich’s budget

Ben — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:00:12 +0000

In all of the post-budget excitement an interesting story went somewhat under reported. On June 30th John Kasich held a press conference in Findlay to announce that the state had agreed to offer Marathon Oil two separate tax credits and agreed to exempted certain practices done by Marathon Oil from the Commercial Activity Tax (CAT). These breaks will end up costing the state tens of millions of dollars every year. As the Columbus Dispatch reported the next day:

Marathon Petroleum will get a 75 percent, 15-year job-retention tax credit from the state to keep its 1,650 employees in Findlay and a [...]

2012 is starting to look like 2008

ModernEsquire — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:56:59 +0000

If I were a Congressional Republican right now, I’d start to worry if I shouldn’t have bothered unpacking my stuff in my new majority offices just yet. We’re seeing some rather ominous warning signs for the Congressional Republicans that suggest that unless things change in the next year, they could be looking at yet another Democratic tide election that very well could sweep them right out of the majority again. Boehner is campaigning to win a special election race the Republicans should have been holding in a cakewalk, the Democrats are having little trouble raising money to compete with the GOP in the minority, and the polling environment has radically worsened for the GOP from the 2010 highs. All and all, it's not a bad time to be a Democrat contemplating a run for Congress.

John Kasich gets an independent expenditure group to start pushing his budget and agenda

ModernEsquire — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:01:49 +0000

Four days ago, a new “independent” expenditure group was formed called “One Ohio United.” Right now, it’s primary focus appears to be promoting Kasich’s “Jobs” Budget as this television ad shows (note: we have not confirmed this ad is actually airing anywhere, yet) The group appears to be headed by a "Mike Morris," who we believe is the same Mike Morris that Chairs the Ohio Business Roundtable as well as the CEO of AEP. The group also names the CEO of ScottsMiracle-Gro as one of its members, which is interesting since he endorsed Ted Strickland in a campaign ad last year. Mea culpa?

John Kasich gets the “death panel” treatment, and he doesn’t like it one bit

ModernEsquire — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:58:13 +0000

The Ohio Health Care Association, a predominately nursing home industry interest group, is presently running this television ad about Kasich’s Medicaid budget. An ad that begins with an image of John Kasich, a bunch of hospitalized elderly patients, and ends with a flatline as someone, literally, pulls the plug. And Governor Kasich is pissed about it, and decrying the influence of campaign dollars in Medicaid policy. Wonder if he has the same take on charter schools? Nah.

Rupert Murdoch admits it—he’s using his media empire to circumvent Ohio’s campaign finance laws

ModernEsquire — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:34:00 +0000

Back in May, News Corp. Chairman/CEO Rupert Murdoch and his wife donated $10,000 each to John Kasich’s campaign. Shortly after that, News Corp. gave $1 million to the Republican Governors’ Association.

In yesterday’s Politico, Murdoch admitted that he had his company’s PAC make the donation solely to help out John Kasich. When asked if he ever considered how such an one-sided partisan donation could affect Fox News’ credibility, he said:

“It doesn’t reflect on Fox News,” he said. “It had nothing to do with Fox News. The RGA [gift] was actually [a result of] my friendship with John [...]

Happy misleading Statewide candidates August campaign finance reporting day!

ModernEsquire — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:50:56 +0000

Yep, today’s the deadline for the Statewide candidates (except for the U.S. Senate) to report their August fundraising haul. And yet again, they don’t actually have to report their spending, so any cash-on-hand figures you see bandied about is highly misleading and shouldn’t be trusted. That’s why I’m not going to run them in this post.

We’ll update this post as the reports are filed today.

Governor:

Governor Ted Strickland (D): $1.4 million. A $72k donation by the Franklin County Democratic Party, but no sizeable donation from the Ohio Democratic Party. This is the first report where ODP [...]

I am Wall $treet and So Can You!

ModernEsquire — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:26:01 +0000

(With apologies to great American and fellow native South Carolinian Stephen Colbert.)

At the beginning of this month, the Kasich campaign announced it wanted to raise $100,000…. at some point. They’re at $69,637.00 at the time I’m writing this.

On Monday, the Strickland campaign announced that it wanted to raise $110,000 by Saturday.

They’re presently at $85,085. That’s over $15,000 more than Kasich has claimed to raise all month. And the Strickland campaign did that in only five days.

While I was taping an appearance on ONN’s “Capital Square” with Matt Naugle, the Strickland campaign sent out an e-mail with [...]

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown lends his support to his friend, Governor Ted Strickland

ModernEsquire — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:13:08 +0000

The Strickland-Brown campaign just sent out an e-mail fundraising solicitation from U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. Ordinarily, these type of “celebrity” solicitations can be predictably boilerplate. However, this one has a good personal touch:

Sometimes, two people couldn’t be more different.
There’s a stark contrast between Governor Ted Strickland and his opponent, former Congressman Kasich. I know that because — before you elected me your Senator — I served with them both in the House of Representatives.

….

Throughout his career in Washington, Congressman Kasich voted time and time again for the type of outsourcing and unfair trade deals that [...]

[Exclusive:] It’s official! Former bank lobbyist Steve Stivers has accepted too much special interest money

ModernEsquire — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:54:43 +0000

Much has been made of Steve Stivers recent FEC report, but not much has been written about where Stivers is getting his money. According to Stivers’ report 40% of his donations were from business PACs. In fairness, though, Kilroy accepted a similar ratio from mostly union PACs.

Stivers accepted so much special interest money, though, he likely violated federal campaign finance laws. My understanding is that a PAC can only donate $10,000 and individuals can only donate up to $4,800 to a congressional campaign in a single cycle. Another federal political candidate’s campaign may only donate up to $4,000 a [...]